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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry Celebrates the Opening of Wonderland Puppet Theater: Visions of the Beloved Community

August 21, 2024 @ 4:30 pm - 5:00 pm

The Ballard Institute will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Wonderland Puppet Theater: Visions of the Beloved Community on Wednesday, Aug. 21, with refreshments served at 4:30 p.m. and an in-person exhibition tour at 5 p.m. by curator Dr. Paulette Richards and Ballard Institute Director Dr. John Bell, which will also be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute/). All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

In the summer of 1961 in the suburban community of Concord Park, near Philadelphia, Nancy Schmale persuaded her neighbor Alice Swann to put on The Magic Onion, a puppet show written by Bil and Cora Baird, even though neither Schmale nor Swann had any experience performing with puppets. This collaboration set into motion Wonderland Puppet Theater a fifty-year interracial puppetry collaboration that took place during—and reflected—the late-20th century’s experience of the Civil Rights movement, the Women’s movement, and the flowering of puppetry for children. With original puppets, photographs, audio-visual media, and archival documents Wonderland Puppet Theater: Visions of the Beloved Community chronicles Swann and Schmale’s collaboration in the context of residential desegregation, children’s media, and women’s careers in puppetry.

For more information

The museum will be closed through Aug. 21 while the new exhibition is installed. After the opening, the Ballard
Institute will be open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11
a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no set admission, but visitors are encouraged to pay as they wish. Learn more at
bimp.uconn.edu.

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Details

Date:
August 21, 2024
Time:
4:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Event Categories:
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Website:
https://bimp.uconn.edu/2024/07/08/wonderland/